Bad Days
by X3
Summary: A Bad Day Followed by Another Bad Day , Followed by 88 More Bad Days
1. How it Happened

Title:  A Bad Day, Followed by Another Bad Day, Followed by 88 More Bad Days

Disclaimer:  I own nothing and am getting no money

Rating: PG

It had been 3 months.  3 months of searching for his crew.  3 months and 1 day ago everything had been different.  He'd had his little but loyal crew, and they were going to restore the Commonwealth and save the galaxy from the Magog invasion.  The next day a delegation of Neitzchiens came on board and by the end of the day had sold most of the Andromeda crew into slavery.  

Trance hid on Med deck.  She'd asked Rommie to show her what was happening in the negotiations as she rushed to finish the latest batch of Harper's medicine.  She was supposed to be there, fostering good will, but she was running late.  She saw the negotiations turning ugly, saw Harper bolt from the room.  Without sound to the images Andromeda was showing her she couldn't tell what exactly was happening, but the good guys were losing.  "Where's Harper?' she asked.  The image shifted to Harper jacked into the computer, "What's he doing?"  She asked the invisible AI

"Blocking access to my systems"

"What's going on?"

Andromeda didn't answer, she couldn't, and Harper had locked her up behind so many doors it was going to take a genius to find her.  Trance knew something bad was happening and curled up behind the instrument tray just in time.  Angry Neitzchiens stormed through the door growling and obviously looking for something.

Confident the room was empty the leader, Cano jumped up on the bed.  Trance slowly inched back and squeezed between the wall and a computer panel.  She still had a fine view of he invaders.  "Ship!"  Yelled the Neitzchien. Nothing happened, Andromeda was still lost.

Another angry Neitzchien came in the room and stood in front of his superior. It was the second in command Mithell. If this new fellow had been observant he would have noticed the crooked computer panel and may have investigated.  Luckily Mithell was far from alpha male.  

"The ship won't respond, we're locked out of every system"

"Really?  I couldn't figure that out," sneered his commander

"No sir, with respect, we know why the ship won't respond.  We found the little human interfacing with it."

"I assume the situation was dealt with"

"Yes sir, he's been taken care of"

"Not damaged excessively I hope.  The kid has a port, he'll bring in 100 thrones easy."

"No sir, the mudfoot is fine- just a little bruised"

"Good take him to the ship with the others" the second guy nodded and turned to leave

Cano then laughed.  "Shame about your lineage if your father hadn't been such a weak disgrace Mithell you might be able to give the orders one day." With his back to the leader he grimaced and left, leaving the alpha alone.  

Cano stood up to leave as well. This is when Tyr arrived.  He came through the door like a bull, knocking down the intruder.  They scuffled for a few minutes and Trance crept out to help.  Cano stumbled back into the bed and Trance hit him with the first heavy object she could lay her little lavender fingers on.  It happened to be the leg of a maintenance bot that Dylan had brought to Med Deck looking for Harper to get an explanation on why it was laying in the middle of a hallway.  Harper hadn't been there so the captain had just left it next to the bed.

Unfortunately being hit with a robot leg did not knock the Neitzchien unconscious; it just made him even angrier.  Fortunately, Trance did have another angry Neitzchien on her side.  Tyr took the leg from Trance and slammed it into this opponent's face.  Blood gushed from Cano's nose and his head slammed back against the side of the bed.  He went limp and sagged to the floor.  

"Take care of him," sneered Tyr with disgust as he went to the computer terminal against the wall to get a report on what was happening with the Neitzchien vessel.  Trance proceeded to tie Cano tightly to a chair.  Tyr banged the computer at what he saw.  Andromeda's sensors were the only thing responding after Harper's tinkerings and he did not like what they showed.

"What's happening!" Trance asked

"They're leaving.  Apparently they decided not to wait for their leader here" Tyr gestured to their unconscious guest

When Cano came to about an hour latter he found himself bound and being stated down by Trance.  Pressing a button on the little box in her hand she said, "He's awake"

"On my way" came Tyr's growl.  Tyr was not in a good mood.  On top of having the rest of the crew kidnapped the damn little professor really had locked up the computer.  There was no way the Neitzchiens could have gone storming around the galaxy with a High Guard Warship.  They had been dead in the water, and weaponless.  It had taken Tyr 2 hours to get the weapons partially charged, there was still little sign of Andromeda herself.   They didn't even have communications within the ship.  That's why they were using the little radio's Trance had found in a pile of gizmos Harper had been working on just before the meeting with the Neitzchiens.

"Hello" smiled Tyr

Cano spit at him, Trance kicked his chair over with an effortless flick of her foot.  Now Cano was on his back looking up at Tyr.  In a perfect good cop/ bad cop maneuver Trance jumped from the table she was perched on.  "You don't want to see this little girl"

            "Come on Tyr, be nice.  I'm sure he'll tell us what happened to the others"

            "Never, you prideless nothing.  You won't get the better of me"

            "You won't get the better of me," mocked Tyr  "Please!  You our laying tied up on our deck.  You can't even get off the floor if we don't help you"

            "Tyr!"

            "Listen to your little purple friend there, Kodiak. You don't want the trouble that will follow this"

            "They do seem like such a loyal bunch, as they left you here for me to do what I wish to you.  Just tell me where they took the others and maybe I'll let you live."  The last part of his sentence was practically a low growl.

"I don't want to see this" Trance said and sauntered from the room. If a Netizchien had ever looked afraid it may have been the look on Cano's face at that moment.

It was dark.  Dylan couldn't see his hand in front of his face.  Rev, with his Magog night vision assured him everyone was present and accounted for.  The fight had not gone well.  He'd let his guard down and Beka wound up in a chokehold at gunpoint.  Harper bolted, Hunt had thought he was going to do something stupid like throw himself at the Neitzchien to try and save the woman to whom he was so loyal.  Luckily he had kept his thoughts straight and apparently set up a system to at least save the ship from being used by the Neitzchiens.  Well, that's what he figured from the rantings of the Neitzchien who had dumped the unconscious Harper with the rest of them.  Using Beka's life as his bargaining chip Mithell had led the rest of the crew to this dark cargo hold.  That had been a while ago, it was hard to tell exactly how long, but it felt like a while.  

As the captain, it seemed like he should be saying something, doing something to get them out of this.  Unfortunately he had no idea what to say to his invisible crew. Beka was fuming.  It was possible that she was pacing.   When they had first arrived she had been announcing what was going on.  Growing up and living her entire life in space she could feel the engines.  She knew when the ship left Andromeda, when they entered slipstream, about how fast they were going.  

"This sucks" came her disembodied voice "I can't believe this is happening!  I mean, were depending on Tyr, who may have left us, and Trance to save us!"  

Trance had never made it to the meeting.  Dylan really hoped she had found a place to hide and was keeping out of sight until this blew over.  Tyr had been in the room when the betrayal occurred.  He'd led one of the aggressors into the hall and hadn't been seen since.  There was a report that one of the escape pods had been launched, that the Neitzchien had saved himself at left the others.  Dylan didn't buy that.  Tyr had gone against self-preservation to protect Andromeda and her crew before, and Dylan didn't think his pride would let himself be scared away by a band of dishonorable Nietzchiens.  His genes would reign supreme.  

He was about to say something when Harper's moan from somewhere in the dark, announced he was waking up.  There was a sharp intake of breath as Harper found himself alone in the dark.  

"We're here Harper" Dylan said

"Great Boss, Now all we need is to not be here and everything will be fine."  Harper's wish came true almost immediately.  The door opened, flooding the cargo bay with light.  


	2. Finding Rommie

Part 2

Disclaimer:  I still own nothing, and I still have no money

After leaving Med Deck Trance headed for the engine room.  They needed Rommie back on line and she was just as likely as Tyr make that happen.  She sat next to the computer console where Harper worked most often on Rommie.  This was just awful.  He was gone, and Dylan and Beka and Rev were gone.  In a way Rommie was gone too because they couldn't communicate with her.  Trance had found her avatar; hoping she was still functioning and that maybe she could help fix herself.  Unfortunately, Rommie was lying in a heap in the hallway outside the engine room.  

She closed her eyes and concentrated.  She had to think like Harper to get past his security measures.  She moved to put her hand on the control panel but found it on a can of Sparky Harper had left behind the boxlike panel.  Sighing she popped the top and took a sip.  The bubbles tickled her nose and she giggled.  Regaining control she took a deep breath.  "This is serious.  I am Harper.  I am a genius.  I like Sparky cola."  She took another sip, giggled one more time and closed her eyes.  "I am trying to protect the ship. Neitzchiens betrayed Dylan again and they are going to be a very powerful force with Andromeda at their command.  I can't let that happen."  She was surprised how quickly these thoughts were coming to her.  

She looked at the box; it seemed to want some sort of code.  Continuing to think like Harper she figured it would be a number.  Numbers were harder to figure out than words as passwords but Harper had a good mind for numbers.  She put in the most obvious code number, his birthday, but the panel just gave her a little shock.

"Harper!" she scolded despite the fact he wasn't there.  "That wasn't very nice".  She closed her eyes again.  Maybe it was some other important day in his life.  When he left Earth?  When he found Beka?  When they found the Andromeda?  They all seemed like perfectly good passwords.  The day his mother died?  Was she even dead, maybe she was living happily in some old age home somewhere.  She took a deep breath and took another sip of Sparky. Harper didn't talk about Earth so she had no idea of the date he left.  She was about to type in the day they found the Andromeda when she glanced at the can.  "Think like Harper" she told herself.  She knocked back the last of its contents and turned it over.  As she expected there was an expiration date printed on the bottom of the can.  She typed it in.  Sure enough it was the password.

Holo-Rommie appeared in front of her.  "Oh Rommie I am so glad to see you!" squealed Trance.  "Dylan, Beka, Rev, and Harper were all taken away!  We need to get them back"

            Rommie shook her head, Harper had her so tied up she'd given herself a headache.  

"I'm trying to get the engines on line.  It should only be another few minutes."  

The door slid open and Rommie appeared next to her other self.   " I am also checking subspace channels for news that might give us a hint as to where to begin our search."  Tyr strode into the room, flexi in hand.  

            "They were meeting" he threw the flexi at the hologram, who easily caught it.  "With these slavers. There was to be an auction.  Our comrades are probably with one of these people now." Holo-Rommie blinked out of existence and Rommie took the flexi and went off to see what she could find out.

"What about Cano?"  Trance asked

            "He's in a torpedo tube taking the scenic route to civilization." Rommie nodded.  

            "He is currently moving away from us at 0.0000001 light years per hour.  He should reach a habitable world in approximately 3 weeks."

            "Why didn't you kill him?"  Trance added quickly, 'Not that I wanted you to, it just seems a little un-Tyr-like."

            "Knowing the humiliation he will feel by being defeated by a prideless Neitzchien and a purple pixie, in addition to being abandoned by his own men, this is a torture death should not deprive him of."

            "Oh so you're not going soft" he glared at her "No, you're defiantly still very scary" she squeaked


	3. Finding Dylan

Disclaimer:  I own nothing and am getting no money

Part 3

They found Dylan first, just a week after he had been taken.  He was the easiest to find because he was so well known.  It took longer to get the ship's engines on line than it did to take back its captain.  He'd been bought by a businessman who wanted to put him in, of all things, a circus.  So when you saw an ad with the phrase "300 year old High Guard Captain" in it, it didn't take a genius to figure out where Dylan was. 

 The man, named Ofex, who owned the circus had actually brought Rev Bem as well.  There was a darling picture of a Magog foaming at the mouth, wearing a Wayist Medallion above a caption that read "Sector's only captive Magog!"  

Ofex was not a strong man.  Good at scheming, cheating and lying, but not so much fighting.  That is why he had Neitzchien Guards for his latest acquisitions.  Hunt was waiting for the right time, playing along to begin with.  He had seen his crew sold off to different buyers. It was disgusting.  The Neitzchiens, under new leadership, had brought them in chains to the main deck.  There, on the view screen were the faces of at least 12 alien bidders.  The crew had been humiliatingly auctioned off one by one; first Beka, to a drooling green blob of a man.   Harper was sold to a mining company- who made clear if Harper turned out to be more than 5 foot 5 he'd demand a refund.  Rev went to the zoo and that's where Dylan ultimately found himself too.  What an exhibit "Last Remaining High Guard- the 300 year old man!"

8 days Hunt waited.  Everyday he woke up in his tiny little 3-walled room.  A ration bar was slipped trough the slot in the door 3 times a day and people walked by the 4th wall, made of glass throughout the day. He would never go to a zoo again after this.  

Then Tyr showed up, creating more than an ample distraction.  Between a determined Nietzchien, a Highly trained officer, and a Magog who was more than a little frustrated after 8 days of having peanuts thrown at him, it didn't take long for the guards to decide, they weren't bring paid enough to deal with his hazardous situation.  

Tyr had shown up, bought his ticket like a good little boy, and when he came to Rev's exhibit, promptly ripped the lock off the door with his bare hand.  Rev had calmly left his cage and followed Tyr to Dylan, completely ignoring the screaming zoo goers who panicked and ran every which way all around them.  Tyr used equal finesse to rip the lock from Dylan's cage and let him out.  

It was only now that the zoo guards came out to see what the problem was.  Rev growled, Tyr handed Dylan a Force Lance from his pocked and extracted his own.  The guards backed down and let them escape they were Neitzchiens after all.  No job that paid so little was worth dying for.  . 

They returned to the Andromeda.  It had been a while since Dylan was so happy to see it.  But the ship seemed so incomplete without Beka and Harper.  The information Rev and Dylan had about where their friends had been taken narrowed down Rommie's search considerably.  Harper had to be on Essic 9, a mining moon.  That would be the next place they went.


	4. Just missed Harper

Part 4

Disclaimer:  I still own nothing; (the second part hasn't changed either)

Mining sucked.  Not that he ever had thought it was a fun job. Harper had never dreamed of being a miner because it seemed like a dangerous scary job. It turned out that he was right all along, that mining sucked.  It was freezing, dark, and it was hard to breath down there.  

"Get down there now you dumb mudfoot!"

His "owner" was yelling at him again.  Didn't he ever get sick of doing that?  He'd been brought because he was small.  He'd fit in the inner creases of the mine tunnels. Harper obeyed, because he was tired of being hit.  The guy who brought him, Teddy had been hitting him at every opportunity.  It was very humiliating to be hit by a man named Teddy.  

The mine was dark.  The air was thick with dirt and the ore they were mining.  Shivering, he began digging for ore.  Hours passed, well it felt like hours.  Time was difficult to measure down in the mine.  Harper measured time in ailments.  His back ached more than it had in years, his hands were cut and bleeding and his knees refused to straighten.  He figured that meant he's been working for at least 8 hours.  Latter his knees actually buckled and figured it had been about 12 hours.  His supervisor hauled him to his feet and sent him out of the mine.  

He'd crashed just outside the mine, in a heap off to the side.  There was nowhere else for the slaves to go.  If you weren't in the mine, you had to stay close because you were always being watched.  He just slept.  It was the heavy sleep of exhaustion.  That continued for weeks. He worked until he dropped, went back when they kicked him awake, and finished when he dropped again.  He waited for something to happen, but it didn't.  He was also running low on his medication.  

He stumbled and fell to his knees as he ducked under the low, wooden entrance to the mine.  It was pouring rain and so Harper was now in thigh deep mud.  That as all he could take today.  He stood up and started walking.  The rain was cold and the wind swirled it in the air of this dark night.  But Harper kept walking.  He hadn't planned this escape.  The rain had just given him the idea, and at this point anything was worth a shot.   He walked quickly, without looking at anyone right into the forest that surrounded the mine.  On this dark night the forest was a pitch -black maze.  Harper could hear his supervisor's yell when he realized Harper wasn't in his spot.  

He could hear the curses of his supervisor and some of the others who worked for the company as they crashed through the dark trees.  Unfortunately for them, Harper had developed pretty good night vision evading Magog and Neitzchiens for nearly 2 decades.  They still had trees on Earth and Harper had always been a good climber.  He scurried up the large trunk of the nearest tree and made his way up through the branches like he was part monkey.  Near the top he braced himself between the arms of two branches and watched the search for him with a smirk.  

Reports Andromeda received said Harper just walked away.  He came up from the mines and just kept walking.  It was a stormy night and his supervisor lost tract of him.  It had to be one of the easiest escapes ever not planned.  When morning came and the storm had cleared, they simply couldn't find Harper.  While it was nice that Harper had escaped slavery, but it was going to make him harder to find.  

Rommie was searching the logs of every transport ship that left the week Harper disappeared.  It was slow going because ships transported the ore off that planet 8 times everyday.  That meant 56 ships, 56 destinations for Harper.  


	5. Finding Beka

Part 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing and I am getting no money

Title: (In case you forgot by now) A Bad Day, Followed by Another Bad Day, Followed by 88 Bad Days

Beka sighed as she stirred the soup so it wouldn't burn.  She was the property of Igmar Planck, and not very happy about it.  Igmar liked to look important.  He wanted to impress his clients and business associates with his fine house and all the servants he could afford.  Unfortunately he was cheap and it was cheaper to own a person than to pay them a salary.  So he bought slaves to be domestic help in his very nice house.  

Beka did not appreciate that it was a very nice house.  She was too busy being angry that she had been sold into slavery and now found herself working in the kitchen of a big green goo ball.  It had been a month since she had seen her friends.  She'd been the first one to go so she didn't even know what had happened to them.  When she'd first arrived at Igmar's home on Mystate 2 she was sure someone would rescue her soon.  She kept waiting for Dylan, Rommie, Tyr, or even Harper to come.  

She had decided it was time to go now.  She was tired and sore and bruised from working all day and the harsh discipline of the head of the kitchen, Lou.  He had locked her in a closet for 2 days the first time she broke a glass, he had burnt her with a hot pan when she made the chicken a little extra crispy.  He made it quite clear who was in charge and who could be bought and sold like animals.  

So Beka plotted her escape.  She would need a ship, and a way off the grounds. Or she needed to contact Andromeda.  The documents that held the Andromeda crew as slaves were iffy at best.  They would hold up as long as their masters had them, but if they escaped no slave retriever worth his salt would bother to bring them back. 

She knew what she had to do.  The question was how could she do it.  She glanced over at the burner next to her.  Mary was taking rolls off a sheet and snapping the fingers on her other hand.  She had a nervous disorder that caused her to be constantly twitching or snapping her fingers.  Igmar had ordered Lou to keep her in the kitchen so no one would see her.  It was very undignified to be served by the snapping girl.  Beka looked at her.  They were about the same height, she was a little thinner, a red head, and at least 5 years younger, but from the back… 

"Mary?"

"Yes Beka?" 

"You ever dye your hair?"

"No, may I ask why?" Mary was incredibly polite for a girl who had been treated like garbage for so long.  

It was well past midnight as Beka carried an armful of lemons up to the washroom.  Mary was there, snapping away.  She was going to help Beka escape.  Beka set down her supplies.  It was a simple enough plan, cut her hair short, like Mary's use her nano bots to go red and use the lemon juice to lighten Mary's curly red hair to be like Beka's.  Because Mary was the one who went to the market everyday no one would say anything when they say her leave the house tomorrow morning.  

Beka poured the juice over Mary's head.  "Why are you helping me Mary?"  She asked.  As she thought over her plan she realized how much danger Mary was putting herself in.

"So you can escape"

"But why?  I mean I've only met one other selfless person and he was from 300 years in the past"

"You don't belong here.  You belong back in the life they took you away from."

"What about you, I mean they are going to figure it out and you'll still be here."

"I wasn't born with this twitch you know.  I am from a planet that is raided or attacked 3 times a day at least by Magog.  I have all this adrenaline coursing through my body all the time because I needed it to survive.  But here I don't need it, I'm not running, I'm not fighting, I'm safe.  So I have the twitching.  I twitch, but it's not so bad here.  It's the best life I've had.  I'm the little twitching girl who gets kept out of sight and no one bothers with. "  Beka wasn't sure what this had to do with helping her escape.  The girl continued, "But you are not me.  You've told me about your ship and your friends and your mission to save the universe.  That sounds like the best life you've ever had.  So I think you deserve to go back to it."

The transformation was complete.  Mary was a blond and Beka was a red head.  She handed Mary some gloves, "To help quiet the snapping" she explained.  Mary took them and went back to Beka's bed.  Beka went down to the kitchen to the cot Mary slept on.  Mary left for market everyday as soon as the sun was up.  She just passed the one gate guard who buzzed her out.  If she kept her face down he would buzz her right through the gate and she would be home free.  After that it would be a simple matter to disguise herself as a brunette, send a message to Andromeda, and wait for her ride.  

She couldn't sleep; she just wanted to get out of here.  Back to her ship, back to her friends, she wanted to put all this slavery stuff in her past.  She just lay on the cot and waited.  Eventually her mind wondered to weird places like, "Why doesn't Harper ever take his shirt off" and "What was Tyr like as a baby?  I mean, was he always so serious, did he play and learn to ride a bike at some point?"  Then morning came.  

Up with the sun Beka started snapping.  The basket was right where Mary had said it would be.  Beka picked it up and headed for the front door.  That's when she heard Igmar.  "Hey, Uhm, uhm, Twitchy" Beka's breath caught in her throat damn she had been close.  She took a deep breath, if he didn't know Mary's name, maybe he wouldn't know her voice.  

            "Yes sir?" she asked in a fake English accent

            "Yeah, get some extra oranges today.  I'm in a citrus mood"

            "Yes sir" A citrus mood?  What the hell dose a citrus mood feel like?  Not that it mattered. She nodded and walked towards the front door again.  She felt the blob looking at her.  She was forgetting to snap!  She snapped up a storm and threw in a head jerk for good measure.  She saw Mary coming down the stairs, looking directly at her feet to avoid showing her face.  They passed each other and exchanged glances and small smiles.  Igmar pinched Mary's butt as she walked by.  Mary was apparently pretty observant because she pulled off a fine, "leave me alone, It's too early" mumble

            Beka walked through the front door and she was outside.  If she actually liked weather the weather today would have been perfect.  The gatekeeper buzzed her through as she pretended to have a coughing fit and she was free!  She walked to town to send her message.

            Dylan easily matched the green blob man he had seen to the file image of Igmar Planck.  When they contacted him and found out she was gone Dylan thought he had reached another dead end.  He was incredibly surprised to receive a message from Beka herself not ten minutes latter.    "I'm ready to be picked up now mommy" is all it said.


	6. Finding Harper/ The End

Part 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing and am getting no money

Rommie appeared in front of Dylan.  He was sitting at his desk, tiredly rubbing his eyes with one hand.  Here they were, 3months after his meeting with the Neitzchiens, and the crew still wasn't back together.  They'd had 4 dead ends in their search for Harper.  They'd found "Einstein, Albert" on the manifest for a ship leaving the mine and going to a spaceport.  It seemed that he picked up another freighter and wound up riding to a moon.  He'd sent them a message from this moon, but when they arrived he was gone again.  At the location he had provided they only found his angry landlord, whom Harper had apparently stiffed a month's worth of rent.  

He looked up; Rommie was smiling.  He smiled too because Rommie hadn't smiled in weeks.  He could tell she missed Harper, even if she swore she just was uncomfortable with the idea of being engineer less.  All the dead ends were really diminishing everyone's spirits.  Even Tyr seemed a little mellower without the "boy" around.

"Good news I hope"

"A trader said he got his ship fixed by 'a little guy with a port and delusions of grandeur' on Maxim IV" Dylan smiled broadly at the news.

"Tell Beka to take us to Maxim IV"

"Actually Dylan, Beka is the one who found the trader.  We've been heading towards Maxim for 20 minutes"

There he was, goggles down, welding something onto the side of a ship clunkier than the Maru. Beka rushed up and grabbed him, nearly knocking him over in the process. He was thinner; he'd lost at least 20 pounds.  She could feel his skin was freezing as she hugged her crewman.  He removed the goggles to reveal his tired blue eyes, shadowed by circles of exhaustion.  

"Boss!" he exclaimed, "You found me!!"

"Yeah, Is there a reason you can't stay in one place because it makes tracking you down pretty difficult." Beka commented

"You know me boss"

A woman slipped through the doorway behind Beka and Dylan and stood next to Harper.  Without acknowledging the strangers or speaking to Harper she rolled up his sleeve and pulled out a syringe.  Harper continued talking, oblivious to this woman and her ministering. With a practiced ease she found a vein and stuck him.  Before she could depress the stopper Dylan was between them.  She finally said something

"Friends of yours Harper?" she asked, ignoring Dylan

"Woah boss, she's just giving me my meds.  Robin, these are my friends I was telling you about!"

"The High Guards?"

"Yep" She smiled, happy for him

"So I'm losing my best customer" The thought of Harper going without his medicine hadn't even occurred to Dylan.  He was lucky to have found this girl.

"All good things come to an end" he smiled handing her the money he owed.

"Yours has been one of my most interesting jobs.  Of all the drugs people have asked for, never 'something to keep my Magog larvae dormant'."  

"She's been injecting you since you got here then?"  Beka asked

"Every night, I was down to my last dose when she came in"

"I still never got the structure quite right for the inhaler method, the molecules couldn't handle the force behind that velocity, broke apart before they could do anything"

"I think she likes to play with needles" Harper commented

"Sure, I have nothing better to do."  She smiled one more time "Nice knowing you Harper.  Good luck with that whole saving the universe thing.  Hope that works out for you" then she slipped out into darkness and was gone.

"Do I hear voices mudfoot!"

"Yes sir, Mr. Abbey sir" Harper answered the gruff voice of his boss lightly.  The tall, balding man strode out shaking his hands wildly.

"You-" he slapped Harper so hard it made him stumble "know the rules" he raised his hand again.  This time Dylan was not so polite as he stepped between Harper and possible danger.  Dylan took hold of Mr. Abbey's wrist and glared at the skinny man.

"I'm quitting now sir." Mentioned Harper.

"OK mudfoot" and that was that

It had taken 3 months to get the crew back together.  But it had happened.  Like any problem fate threw at this crew, they just kept going on.  The crew of the Andromeda Ascendant, all 7 of them; Dylan, Rommie, Beka, Trance, Rev, Harper, and Tyr, had a mission.  They were going to restore the Commonwealth, save the galaxy from the coming Magog World Ships.  

They hadn't had a lot in common when this mission started.  Dylan and Rommie were High Guard Officers, 300 years in the future and they had just invited a mercenary and a colorful band of petty thieves to be their new crew.  But they had become a crew just as close and even more like a family than Dylan's former crew.  That's why they had spent 3 months of bad days looking for each other.

The End 


End file.
